1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ubiquitous network system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for processing data in a ubiquitous home network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the development of electronic control technology and communication technology, home-appliances have adopted wireless control technology such that they can be controlled by a remote-controller.
Exemplary examples of such home-appliances are televisions, DVD players, audio systems, air conditioners (electric fans, air cleaners, humidifiers, heaters, etc.), boilers, curtain systems, lights, cleaning robots, etc. What's more, as the number of home-appliances has increased, the number of the remote-controllers accompanying thereto has increased, that using them is confusing, storing them is inconvenient, and they are aesthetically unattractive.
To solve these problems, a universal remote-controller has been developed to integrally control a variety of control targets. That is, with only a single universal remote-controller, users can easily control various home-appliances.
In general, the remote-controller uses infrared rays to transmit control signals to control targets (home appliances). The IrDA has the following characteristics: its communication range is relatively short; data can be transmitted/received only through a specific direction, which is called an oriented structure; and the transmission and transmittance of an IR signal are low. Due to such characteristics, the IrDA devices can only be used to control close targets and those in an open space without any blocking structure therebetween. Therefore, if a control target is placed relatively far from a user or blocked by a structure between it and the user, the user must move closer to the control target.
Related to this, with the creation of a ubiquitous environment, ubiquitous sensor network (USN) technology has been researched and developed. The USN refers to a network where: USN nodes placed in a certain area detect the surrounding physical environment to transmit information about it to a server through RF signals, in which the transmitted information is repeated among the USN nodes until reaching the server, so that the server provides the received information to an administrator or controls a corresponding control target based on the received information.
The present applicant has filed the patent applications related to the USN technology in Korean Intellectual Property Office, entitled “UBIQUITOUS WIRELESS NETWORK SYSTEM, NODE MODULE, AND OPERATING METHOD THEREOF” assigned to Patent Application No. 10-2005-0133045, “TESTER FOR NODE MODULE OF UBIQUITOUS SENSOR NETWORK SYSTEM, METHOD OF TESTING MODE MODULE, AND REMOTE MONITORING APPARATUS OF UBIQUITOUS SENSOR NETWORK SYSTEM” assigned to Patent Application No. 10-2006-00630005, and “UBIQUITOUS SENSOR NETWORK SYSTEM AND GATEWAY THEREOF” assigned to Patent Application No. 10-2006-0102898, the entire disclosures of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference.